Mattress or the like



April 3, 1945-.

E. L. PABST MATTRESS 011 THE LIKE Filed Jan. 15, 1943 Edwin L. Pabst Patented Apr. 3, 1945 MATTRESS OR THE LIKE Edwin L, Pabst, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to" Spring-Air Company, Holland, Mich, a corporation of Michigan Application January 15, 1943, Serial No. 472,511

.6 Claims. ('01. -359) The present invention relates to cushion pad constructions such as mattresses and the like and aims to provide certain improvements the nature of which will be explained in the following specification.

The general class of pads to whichv the invention has particular reference is the type in which an outer casing encloses a filling formed entirely of some fibrous .material such as cotton, hair or the like. Such pads are old in the art but the best prior constructions of which I am aware have failed to give satisfactory service and have generally been considered inferior to the more expensive structure whichinclude additional resilient elements, such as spring devices of wire, rubber and the like. An important object of the present invention is to produce. a pad having a filling consisting substantially .entirely of fibrous material which will closely approach inner spring pads in respect of comfort, durability, resilience and service life.

Ina particular and preferred embodiment the present invention is incorporated in a pad comprising a casing divided into compartments, generally arranged in parallelism transverselyof a box-like structure, and each filled, with fibrous material under some initial compression. Pads of this general character are not new, but difiiculty has been encountered in making them shape-retaining over reasonably long periods of use- Prior to'my invention such pads tended to bulge outwardly at their side walls, and thi produces a highly objectionable flattening of the marginal portion early in the life of the pads. Such pads also involve difiicult manufacturing operations, which added to their cost. Features of the present invention include the provision of structural arrangements for reinforcing the casing against side bulging and edge flattening and the adoption of method steps which implify and facilitate manufacture and thus reduce cost.

The invention thus comprises a novel pad construction. In another aspect, the invention contemplates a novel construction of casing per se, considered independently of its filling,which casing is adapted to be filled and closed to constitute a complete mattress :or other cushion pad. The invention will therefore be claimed hereinafter as a complete pad construction and as a casing construction. Certain preferred embodiments of the invention, illustrated in its application to the manufacture of a particular type of mattress, are shown on the'accompanying drawing and will now be explained, but these embodiments are illustrative onlyand the invention is not to be considered restricted to the specific details thereof. Other embodimcnts are contemplated and are considered to be within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the claims.

In the accompanying drawing,

Figure 1 1s a perspective view of a mattress casing made according to thev principles of the invention, which casing may be regarded as a complete article of manufacture or. as an elementof a finished mattress which will embody a full developmentof those principles;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken along the line 2--2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross section of one type or filler that may be used for the compartment of the casing of Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a completed mattress with certain parts opened or broken away to show the internal arrangement;

Fig. 5 is a detail cross section, taken along the line 5-5 of Fig. 4, showing an end or border wall and two adjoining filled compartments of the mattress; and

Fig. 6 is a perspective of a compressing device which may be used in the operation of insertng the filler material into the compartments.

, material such as cotton batting.

pad may have fewer or more than the number of Referring to the drawing, the pad there shown is a mattress of generally familiar type, being divided by a plurality of partition sheets into a number of parallel, transverse compartments, each'containing a pre-compressed filling of fibrous Of course the compartments illustrated; as a matter of fact it may have but one compartment, since undivided pads are useful for many cushion purposes. In all cases, however, the pad will havean outer casin including a bottom Ill (Figs. 2, 4 and 5), a border upstanding from the peripheral edges of the bot-- tom and consisting, when the casin isgenerally rectangular shape as shown, of a back wall II,

end walls l2, l2, and a front wall I3, and a cover or top wall l4 secured to the upper edges of the border. Thi arrangement provides a generally box-like shape made preferably of stout fabric.

of any considerable size, such as a mattress, into compartments for the purpose of separating the filling, which is generally cotton and which will for the sake of brevity be hereinafter so designated, into a number of relatively small, independent bodies. This separation prevents shifting of the cotton from one area of the pad to another under the stresses of use, and it desirably reinforces the'whole structure. The presently illustrated mattress is of the compartmented type, being divided by a plurality of partition sheets I5, each preferably made of strong textile fabric. 7

It has been the practice to fashion a compartmented casing with all parts sewed in place except the front wall of the surrounding border, corresponding to the part l3 of the accompanying drawing. This wall was left unattached to the end walls and to the topwall or cover and was attached only to the front edge of the bottom 10. The ends of theseveral compartments were thus left open to receive their fillers and after the fillers were inserted'the front wall was raised to close the compartments and its top edge was stitched to the front edge of the cover. It was found impractical then to stitch this front wall to the front edge of each partition sheet and the front wall was therefore left unsupported against outward bulging in response to pressure from the filling. The partition sheets, anchored to the back wall and to the bottom and top walls, did not reinforce the front wall or impose any restraint upon it, with the result that the mattress very soon became flattened along its front margin as the front wall bulged outwardly- Attempts were made to sew the front wall to the partition sheet ends, progressively upwardly from the bottom to the cover, before finally stitching the upper edge of the front wall to the forward edge of the cover, but this proved expensive and impractical because of the interference afforded by the compressed cotton.

My invention provides a solution for this difficulty and produces an inexpensive and readily fashioned construction in which the front wall is securely stitched to and reinforced by the partition sheets. This is accomplished by sewing the front wall of the empty casing to the forward ends of the partition sheets, preferablyof course to all of them, and by securing the ends of the front wall, throughout the entire height of each end, to theadiacent forward edge of each end wall l2 while the casing is still unfilled. The front wall I3 and the end walls l2 may be integral, or they maybe separate strips sewed together, but in either case the front wall of the unfilled casing is closed against the end walls and against the front edges of the partition sheets and is firmly supported and held in place by these walls and sheets. It is easy to assembl these parts in this way while the casing is unfilled since there is no interference from the presence of any expanding cotton and since the operator can see and properly manipulate the parts to be sewed together.

This construction, of course, necessitates the provision of an opening, or of a plurality of openings one between each adjacent pair of partition sheets, through which the fillers may be inserted into the compartments, and according to'the present invention I provide such opening or openings by initially leaving the front margin of the cover 14 unsecured to the front end portions of the end walls l2 and unsecured to any part of the top edge of the front wall [3. The unsecured margin of the cover l4 thus forms a fiap which can be retracted as shown in Fig. 1 to expose beneath it an opening H, or a plurality of such openings one between each adjacent pair of partition sheets l5, through which the fillers may be inserted into the compartments". After the fillers are inserted through these openings, the fiap I6 is laid down to close the openings and its front edge i8 is stitched to the top edge of the front wall 13. The result is a securely encased filler or group of fillers separated by partition sheets and bounded by a border which is reinforced and maintained against bulging by the filler sheets which take in tension the expansive force of the cotton against the front and back walls of the border.

If the width of the initially unsecured portion of the cover l4, constituting the flap I6, is made approximately equal to the depth of the casing, which in a mattress like that illustrated in the drawing may be some four to six inches, it is easy to insert the fillings in a somewhat diagonal direction downthrough the openings H by means of a compressing device like that shown at IS in Fig. 6. This device is well known, and consists of a pair of trough-like halves best made of sheet metal hinged together at on end and provided at the opposite end of each with a handle by which the handled ends may be pushed together to compress a filling sufficiently to enable the filled device to be inserted into its compartment. The handled ends are left protruding slightly from the opening I! and the device is then withdrawn while the filling is left in the compartment. Its protruding end is then tucked into the compartment, which thereby becomes snugly filled. The filling may comprise any known or new arrangement of fibrous material, such as the cotton batting disposed as shown at 20 in the drawing. In this case two batts are interfolded to form a body of roughly square cross section appreciably larger than the cross sectional area of the compartment to be filled. The measure of difference between the original cross sectional area of the filling, shown in Fig. 3, and the final area, shown in Fig. 5, both figures being drawn on the same scale, determines the firmness or softness of the pad.

The compartments being filled, the fiap I6 is laid down to close the openings H and its edge "18 is sewed to the top edge of the front wall l3 and to the front end portions of the end walls l2. This .is a simple and easy operation, and'it completes the pad.

Handles 2| may be sewed to the front wall in alignment with any selected pairs of partition sheets, preferably before the casing is filled. When the pad is turned, carried, or otherwise moved by pulling on these handles, the stress is borne by the partition sheets in tension and no part of the pad is distorted.

I have found that it is desirable to notch out what would otherwise be the square corners of the partition sheets at the vertex formed by the flap and front wall edges which are stitched together in the final assembling operation. Such notches are shown at 22 and are best provided not merely at the region of the openings H, but at all four corners of each partition sheet, and they produce several important advantages. They make it easier to sew the partition sheets to the bottom and cover of the casing, and they simplify the problem of eliminating Wrinkles. They also eliminate the dilficulty that would otherwise be presented by the presence of surplus material in the partition sheets, which would have to be folded or individually trimmed away at the extreme outer ends of these sheets if they were not cut accurately and/or sewed evenly in place throughout the entire length of each. They also introduce a desirable raised edge effect along the margins of the pad since the cover and bottom are not directly secured to the partition sheets at the region of these cut-outs.

The depth of the notches or cut-outs need be only sufficient to permit the material of the partition sheets to escape the sewing needles. v I have found that acne-half inch depth is adequate and gives good results. A materially greater depth would be undesirable because it would unnecessarily reduce the width of partition sheet material which is sewed to the border walls and would to that extent reduce the reinforcing effect of these sheets.

To enhance the appearance of the pad I prefer to make the lines of stitching by which the partition sheets are sewed to the bottom and cover continuous from border wall to border wall. This extends the lines of stitching across the notchedout areas, but of course in these areas the stitching does not engage the partition sheets and is ornamental merely, and not structural.

It will be observed from the foregoing that a full and complete embodiment of the principles of the invention, such as the mattress depicted by the accompanying drawing, incorporates a number of features that need not be used in combination with each other. That is to say, some of the novel features hereinabove explained may be used to advantage alone or with some only of the other novel features. Thus, to give one example, the flap construction may be adopted to provide for filling a mattress or other cushion pad which is not provided with partition sheets. Other modifications and specific departures from the full and preferred practice of the invention as hereinabove explained will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art, and all such modifications of the illustrated method and constructions are deemed to be within the spirit of the invention to the extent that they are within the scope thereof as pointed out by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a cushion pad construction such as a mattress or the like, sheet material forming top and bottom surface walls and borders connecting said walls at their outer edges, and a partition sheet having its edges connected to the walls and to the opposed borders, said partition sheet having a portion notched out adjacent to the meeting margins of a Wall and a border whereby the partition sheet is unconnected to said wall and border at the vertex of the angle formed by said wall and border and is connected to both at a relatively small spacing from said vertex.

2.,In a cushion pad construction such as a mattress or the like, a generally box-like casing, a partition sheet dividing the casing into adjoining compartments, said partition sheet having rightangularly related edges engaged with right-angularly related casing walls and having a notchedout corner spaced from the margins of the casing walls adjacent to a vertex thereof, and a continuous line of stitching extending around the iii) casing securing the engaged portions of the partition sheet and casing walls together and extending only through the casing in the portions thereof adjacent to the notched-out corner of the partition sheet.

3. In a cushion pad construction such as a mattress or the like, a generally box-like casing, a partition sheet dividing the casing into adjoining compartments, said partition sheet having rightangularly related edges engaged with right-angularly related casing walls and having four notched-out corners spaced from the margins of the casing walls adjacent to the four vertices thereof, and means securing the engaged edges of the partition sheet and the casing walls together.

4. In a cushion pad construction such as a mattress or the like, a generally box-like casing, a partition sheet dividing the casing into adjoining compartments, said partition sheet having rightangularly related edges engaged with right-angularly related casing walls and having four notched-out'corners spaced from the margins of the casing walls adjacent to the four vertices thereof, and a continuous line of stitching extending around the casing securing the engaged portions of the partition sheet and casing walls together and extending only through the casing in the portions thereof adjacent to each notchedout corner of the partition sheet.

5. As an article of manufacture, for use in making a cushion pad construction such as a mattress or the like, a generally box-like casing comprising a bottom, a front wall, a back wall, and two end walls all upstanding from the peripheral edges of the bottom, partitions having their back and front edges secured to the back and front walls respectively and their bottom edges secured to the bottom of the casing, said partitions having their corners including the vertices of their front and top edges notched out, and a cover substantially co-extensive with the bottom secured to the entire top edge of the back wall, to the major portion of the top edge of each end wall, including the portions thereof contiguous to the back wall and excluding the portions thereof contiguous to the front wall, and to the entire top edges of each partition, so as to provide openings along the top edge of the front wall through which fillings may be inserted into compartments defined by the partitions and so as to provide a. flap which may be secured to the front wall and the contiguous portions of the end walls to close said openings.

6. As an article of manufacture, for use in making a cushion pad construction such as a mattress or the like, a generally box-like casing having internal sheet means secured at its opposite ends to the front and back walls of the casing to reinforce the casing by limiting outward bulging of said front and back walls, and a cover for the casing sewed down to the back and end walls and to the sheet means and unconnected to the front end wall and to the contiguous portions of the end walls and sheet means so as to constitute a fiap for the openings thus provided along the top front edge of the casing through which openings filling material may be introduced into the casing.

- EDWIN L. PABST. 

